A convicted rapist who was on parole when he murdered a Ballarat mother in her home last April has been jailed for life.

Jason John Dinsley, 30, of Sebastopol bashed to death Sharon Siermans, 29, with a cricket bat in her Doveton Street home in April this year.

The pair had met once in January through an internet dating site, but Dinsley was angered when Ms Siermans did not want to see him anymore.

"That you might have had some feelings of disappointment or rejection at the time would have been perfectly understandable," Justice Elizabeth Hollingworth said in sentencing.

"But your response was to become angry. So angry that, some two-and a-half months later, having had no further contact with the woman, you decided to go and get a weapon [and] break into her house in the middle of the night."

Judge Hollingworth said it was a sustained, ferocious and cowardly attack.

"Once inside the house, your anger and violence increased to the point where you totally lost control of yourself and beat her to death," she said.

Sharon Siermans was a single mother of a four-year-old boy, who was home at the time of the attack.

Outside court Ms Siermans' brother, Grant Siermans, read out a statement on behalf of his family.

"We are satisfied that the sentencing is in line with the law and that justice has been upheld," he said.

"This should ensure this person should not be able to commit such an act towards others again.

"We believe this shows that violence against women should not go unnoticed, no matter the severity."

'A long history of offending'

Dinsley was first detained in a youth training centre in Queensland when he was 16 and had his first court appearance the following year.

He has more than 140 convictions recorded against his name; most the offences were "street crimes" such as burglary and drug offences.

His first violence-related came in 2002, when he was convicted of threatening serious injury and unlawful assault.